Officials ID woman killed by AV Line Metrolink train

LOS ANGELES – Authorities have identified the woman who fell from the platform and was killed by an Antelope Valley Line Metrolink train pulling into the Sylmar/San Fernando Station, despite a companion’s efforts to pull her to safety.

Felicia Smith, 24, was struck around 6 p.m. Monday, April 16, by Palmdale-bound Metrolink Train 285 at the Sylmar station in the 12200 block of Frank Modugno Drive, officials said.

Smith had been facing the tracks and at some point turned, slipped, and fell backwards from the platform, according to Lt. Paul McLaughlin of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mission Station.

Witnesses said Smith’s boyfriend jumped onto the tracks and tried to pull her to safety, but she may have been unconscious as the man was only able to move her a short distance before he had to jump out of the way, McLaughlin said.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man’s leg was struck but he was not seriously injured. He and the woman’s mother and twin sister came to the Mission Station to try and find out the woman’s condition and if she had been taken to a hospital and were then notified that she had not survived, according to McLaughlin, describing a scene of grief when the notification was made.

The fatality halted train traffic through the station and officials arranged bus bridge service to get passengers to their destinations.